DSF

DREAMGLASS wrote:Looking back at the listed users over the last 24 hours, there are three times as many that haven't made any sort of financial contributions to these forums.

It's a very small percentage of members that have made any financial contribution I'm afraid.

Therein lies the problem. Once you start charging for something that folks are historically used to getting for free, people will just vacate and find alternative venues. Same thing happened with Lycos search engine and the online newspapers that now charge. It's nothing personal, just human nature.

Whilst I agree we don't have as many members as similar forums, it's important to bear in mind that the DSF is more specific in it's knowledge base and if you look at the alternative forums the traffic in similar categories is far less. Members are often thanked for such prompt and detailed responses to problems.

One advantage of beeing on this forum, it that the expertise is vast, I read all the questions and answers even if it does'nt apply to me, as the mixture of answers allow me to understand most of what been said, and has lead me to increase what I make. In saying that the printers and ink section I just can't grasp it, it only gets a quick peek. This forum is value for money. If the money your required is not reached when you need it, do you what you need to, I'm not bothered which way, as long as it contuines, I'd quite happy to pay again if this would help, (please no lectures on the right of wrong on this) all I'm trying to say I would pay twice for it, and it does'nt bother me if people don't pay, some will some won't. The only people that will lose out are those that are serious about what we do and what we want to achive. Long live the forum, and may we all prosper from it, I know I do.

£10 per annum got to be worth that

Been a while since I've posted on this so I thought I'd make my thoughts known. There is still background work being carried out on the forum. I will have the facility to place adverts here but havn't made a final decision on this yet.

The way I would like to move forward is by charging members £5 per annum membership. I feel that this is a very small price to pay for the technical knowledge on tap here and would enable me to continue pushing forward.

I've listened to the feedback being given and I appreciate this a great deal. Generally current members don't seem to have a problem with a small fee being charged. I know it won't please all members and I can't expect to please all of the folk all of the time but I have to find a way to get regular funds coming in. Requests for donations just aren't bringing in enough to even cover hosting fees. Yes, I agree it may well put off some new members joining so I'm looking at having an initial 'trial' period before the subscription has to be paid.

I'm still looking at other ideas but currently feel this is the best compromise available. I'll update again soon.

Justin
DSF Admin

Sounds perfectly reasonable. Just need to think of a way to minimise the admin associated with renewals otherwise this would be an administrative nightmare given 12 month memberships would end at different times of the year. You might consider the annual membership runs from Jan 1st to Dec 31st giving a common time for renewals. If anyone joins, say before the end of June then the full fee applies and after that then a smaller fee of whatever you decide applies to the end of the year.

i am more then happy with this option thumbs up!

bms wrote:Sounds perfectly reasonable. Just need to think of a way to minimise the admin associated with renewals otherwise this would be an administrative nightmare given 12 month memberships would end at different times of the year. You might consider the annual membership runs from Jan 1st to Dec 31st giving a common time for renewals. If anyone joins, say before the end of June then the full fee applies and after that then a smaller fee of whatever you decide applies to the end of the year.

script can doo that every membership will run out after 12mc. I can recomend good one if needed

I have an update to the forum that will manage the subscriptions

Had a couple of enquiries form suppliers so I'm looking at that from a slightly different angle.

I'm all for it Justin.

Ian

Sounds reasonable.

You'd need a script that would cut off access to those who don't pay/renew. The last thing you'd want is to spend your time chasing people to renew.

That said, have you analysed the new members and how long they stay around? If it's the case that new members join, ask questions to get started, and then don't ask any more then they probably wouldn't care that they lost access after 12 months. They'd already have their teeth-cutting questions answered.

Is it really sustainable?

Perhaps you could ask contributing suppliers to put together a "monthly deal" that's only available to paid-up members (not "trial period members"), so that people have a reason to renew if they're not asking questions. Suppliers could take it in turns to offer such a deal, so that they don't feel obliged to do it every month (and so that they're not tripping over their own competition). These would need to be deals that are accessible to everyone - not just "free delivery on a £1000 heat press" kind of thing.

It could also work the other way around. If a supplier gets a new customer buying a "starter kit" or bundle, or whatever, they could include a year's membership to DSF in the bundle and bung a fiver in the DSF kitty on behalf of that customer.

What do you think?